"Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it."
Edmund Burke. What happened on this Day in History?

Monday, November 18, 2013

This Day in History: Nov 18, 1991: Terry Waite released

Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon free Anglican
Church envoy Terry Waite after more than four years of captivity. Waite,
looking thinner and his hair grayer, was freed along with American
educator Thomas M. Sutherland after intense negotiations by the United
Nations.

Waite, special envoy of the archbishop of Canterbury, had secured the
release of missionaries detained in Iran after the Islamic revolution.
He also extracted British hostages from Libya and even succeeded in
releasing American hostages from Lebanon in 1986.

A total of 10 captives were released through Waite's efforts before
Shiite Muslims seized him during a return mission to Beirut on January
20, 1987. He was held captive for more than four years before he was
finally released.

During captivity, Waite said he was frequently blindfolded, beaten
and subjected to mock executions. He spent much of the time chained to a
radiator, suffered from asthma and was transported in a giant
refrigerator as his captors moved him about.

Waite, 52, made an impromptu, chaotic appearance before reporters in
Damascus after his release to Syrian officials. He said one of his
captors expressed regret as he informed Waite he was about to be
released.
"He also said to me: 'We apologize for having captured you. We
recognize that now this was a wrong thing to do, that holding hostages
achieves no useful, constructive purpose,'" Waite said.

The release of Waite and Sutherland left five Western hostages left
in Beirut—three Americans, including Terry Anderson, and two Germans.
The Americans would be released by December 1991, the Germans in June
1992.

Some 96 foreign hostages were taken and held during the Lebanon
hostage crisis between 1982 and 1992. The victims were mostly from
Western countries, and mostly journalists, diplomats or
teachers. Twenty-five of them were Americans. At least 10 hostages died
in captivity. Some were murdered and others died from lack of adequate
medical attention to illnesses.

The hostages were originally taken to serve as insurance against
retaliation against Hezbollah, which was thought to be responsible for
the killing of over 300 Americans in the Marine barracks and embassy
bombings in Beirut. It was widely believed that Iran and Syria also
played a role in the kidnappings.